Why Terrence Howard was Replaced

To the casual Hollywood follower, there were few things more shocking than the announcement that Terrence Howard was being dropped from Iron Man 2 in favor of Don Cheadle. Howard's a popular actor, he played a very popular character in the first Iron Man, and there was a big tease at the end of the movie about how he was going to become Robert Downey Jr's superhero sidekick War Machine in the sequel.

At the time of the announcement, no one even knew if he quit or was fired. Turns out it was sort of both.

Entertainment Weekly reveals that the problem began on the first movie. There were three factors. 1: Howard was the first person cast for Iron Man and, surprisingly, the highest paid -- more than Downey, Gwyneth Paltrow, or Jeff Bridges. 2: "Insiders" say he was difficult on set. 3: Director Jon Favreau was unhappy with his performance.

With the latter two things in mind, when Favreau and screenwriter Justin Theroux started development on Iron Man 2, he decided to give Howard's character Jim Rhodes a more marginalized role. The studio saw this and went to Howard with an offer that was drastically reduced from his paycheck on the first movie.

Howard and his handlers, who were apparently in the dark about Favreau's discontent and decision to give Howard a smaller role, balked at the offer and walked away. The studio then went straight for Don Cheadle, which it had been hoping to work with in some capacity anyway.

Now everything's a done deal and Cheadle has signed a contract to appear not just in Iron Man 2, but also the Marvel team-up movie The Avengers and a possible Iron Man 3. But that's how it happened.

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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1. 1

   Ronny said:

   Don Cheadle is one of the best actors we have today. However, he is not the right choice to play Col. James Rhodes in IRON MAN 2. Terrence Howard should have stayed on. He had better chemistry with Robert Downey, Jr. You actually belive that they are best of friends in the first movie.

   Posted at 10:18 PM, on May 7 2010

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